Conditional formatting will do the first part of what you want to do. However,
you will need to specify how to decipher the Part Length in column A.
Specifically, how do you get from "2.00*08" to 8.0 +/- 0.2?

Is column A a text cell?
Is the format always going to be x.xx*yy?
Will the tolerance factor (x.xx) always be one digit before the decimal, and two
after?
Will the length (yy) always be two digits?
To get the tolerance, is the formula x.xx/10?

--
Regards,
Fred


"Abbo" wrote in message
...
Hi fred thanks for gettin back,
this what the sheet looks like at the mo,

Part Size Lot # Crimped Marker balloon proximal distal
Length Distance Length Shoulder Shoulder
2.00*08 6062931 8.186 8.379 9.499 0.308 -0.788
2.00*08 6062832 N/A 8.17 9.295 0.218 -0.428
2.50*12 6062931 N/A 8.362 8.6 0.141 -0.121

there are six columns basically we measure parts then put these results into
excel.
theres part size and product lot# the rest a measurements we take.

what i would like to be able to do is have a tolerance for the value in
coulnm D depending on what part size. so for 2.00*08 it is 8.0 +- 0.2 ie it
can have a value anywhere between 7.8 and 8.2.for the first entry it is
outside this tolerance, so it would be highlighted.
for each product size the amoumt of products out of tolerance would be
totaled. so for 2.00*08 this would = 1, as the other 1 is in spec,...with me
so far?

now, idealy, and i dunno if this can be done but, i would like to have some
sort of function to compare the coloumn B values of the highlighted
enteries. if the same give a value of 1 if there are two different values
give a 2 if there are three etc.
so for our example 2.00*08 there are two different lot numbers so in some
other column it would give a value of 2.
basically thats what i need, the sheet then is updated every day ie we
measure and enter about 40 parts a day into the sheet.

could i do this with conditional format? do i need multiple sheets maybe for
each product size currently there all lumped onto 1 sheet
any help would be great thanks